Homecoming game Lin’s first as an NBA star

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Jeremy Lin appeared in 29 games for the Warriors during the 2010-11 season. (Carlos Avila Gonzalez/San Francisco Chronicle)

SAN FRANCISCO — As Jeremy Lin wiped away the sweat after a workout — with family and friends waiting and Northern California offering welcome-home temperatures in the mid-60s — it hit him that he had never been back home for a game since the whirlwind began.

He played a bit with the Warriors, but that was before the Rockets signed and cut him, before he landed with the Knicks, and before his life changed forever. He returned with the Knicks, but that was before he saved his career last February, before the documentary “Linsanity,” before the magazine covers, before the SportsCenter commercial and before the endless scrutiny that compares him to a version of himself that, save occasional spikes, he might never reach again.

With all that a bit much to take on in one sitting, he settled on the indisputable realization that it was good to be home.

“It’s definitely different,” said Lin, who started for the Rockets in Tuesday’s late game against the Warriors across the bay in Oakland. “I didn’t realize this was my first time back since I started playing on a nightly basis. I played garbage time (with the Warriors). And last year, we played both of these places (Sacramento and Oakland), but I didn’t play at all. It’s crazy, but for me, it doesn’t feel like that. I feel like all my family and coaches and close friends have come out to see me in New York or see me in Houston, but this is actually the first time home.”

It was also, he knew, another chance to be viewed in the context of how he got here. That he is not the Linsanity point guard no longer seems to burden him (although he will be a focal point of All-Star activities in Houston later this week). The Rockets did not expect that, particularly when James Harden was added to be their star. Lin instead is expected to develop, to become more under control, more effective defensively and, most of all, more consistent.

There have been games that measure up to last season’s mania, even mere moments within otherwise solid games — such as Sunday’s blocked shot, rebound, full-court drive and slam against Sacramento — that remind of Lin’s sublime run through last February. But high scoring and highlights are no longer the point.

“I think there is a misconception just because there is a movie about his life and everything else,” Rockets coach Kevin McHale said. “He’s started less than 80 games. He is a rookie player in a lot of senses. Is he going to (be) up and down? Of course he’s going to be up and down. All young guys are. That’s the thing a lot of people forget. I think it’s frustrating for him at times, too. They expect him to be a finished product. He’s not. He’s learning the NBA game.

“He just happened to catch an unbelievable run in a major market, in New York, and it actually became a story that was bigger than he was. That’s hard. It’s a lot easier to go out and play this game when the expectation level for you is realistic, not Linsanity.”

Youth still shows

McHale said he has seen signs of improvement in a variety of areas but did not hesitate to produce a list of ways in which he believes Lin needs to grow.

“Decision making, moving the ball, playing with the ball, cutting without the ball, playing without the ball,” McHale said. “He’s got a lot of room to grow. Defensively, just being disciplined. There’s a lot of stuff. But you know what? They are all the stuff I would tell you all the young guys are doing. There’s no difference. He’s a young guy.

“He’s very typical of a young player. All the things you would think (would happen) are happening.”

If last February was enough to assure Lin a place in the NBA and pop culture and this February inevitably brings evaluations of him compared to that standard, the measure of his success will lie in the seasons to come, when he becomes whatever he will be as an NBA veteran.

“He’s had some really good games, and he’s had some tough games,” Denver Nuggets coach George Karl said. “I think he is in that process of finding consistency and finding a game that fits his team.

“I remember Steve Nash when he was a young player. People didn’t think he could play. People thought he was a bench player. And he’s going to be a Hall of Fame point guard and one of my favorites ever. You look at Chauncey Billups’ early career and how he bounced around, and he’ll be a Hall of Famer. Jeremy Lin is a talented kid. If he can find the talent and the consistency, I can see him having a great career.”

Back in the Bay Area, however, it is easy to see Lin for how far he has already come since he was unable to earn a scholarship offer from Stanford, the university across the street from his high school, or to stick with the hometown Warriors amid suggestions they had signed him only to cash in on his popularity within the community.

The Warriors released Lin to make room for an offer sheet given to DeAndre Jordan, then joined the Rockets in taking heat for letting Lin go when he took off in New York. However, Rockets general manager Daryl Morey said the Warriors deserve credit for landing Lin in the first place.

“We talked about potentially doing a deal,” Morey said of signing Lin when he went undrafted out of Harvard. “Golden State outbid us — a larger guarantee. They beat every team in the league to get him and did a great job signing him. I still think to this day they deserve the most credit of quote-unquote ‘finding’ Jeremy Lin. They were the highest on him early.”

Lin had grabbed attention by outplaying John Wall in a Las Vegas Summer League game with the Mavericks. When he joined the Warriors, he was still very much a project.

Smart saw potential

“Like all first-year guys trying to figure it out, he could not shoot like he shoots now,” said Sacramento Kings coach Keith Smart, Lin’s coach with the Warriors. “The kid did a great job of transforming his game. One thing he could do right away was … break someone down and take it to the basket. Now you can see him shoot floaters, and his passing game has opened up big-time. At that time at Golden State, you have Steph Curry and Monta Ellis. He was a rookie trying to learn how to play in the NBA.

“I’m so happy for him. He’s a worker. He’d come in early in the morning and start working by himself, before his coach would get there. Every single day the guy was a tremendous worker. He wasn’t Jeremy Lin yet. He wasn’t ready to play in the NBA yet. He had a lot of flaws in his game. The next year and a half, his game changed. Once the jump shot evolved, he had a great feel for finding people, making plays for teammates, and his game took off. Now he has a home.”

Lin can still get to the rim as he did last season, but he has been better leading a break and as a halfcourt playmaker than the Rockets might have expected. In the past two weeks, his assists have increased, his turnovers have decreased, and he has remained among the league leaders in steals.

By being in control more, he has been able to be more consistent, moving toward McHale’s long-term goal for him.

“He’s doing better defensively,” McHale said. “He has a way more concerted effort at keeping people in front of him. He’s throwing the ball ahead. He’s making simpler, easier plays on the offense end, not looking for home runs.

“Jeremy, by nature, is a home run hitter. Home run hitters strike out a lot. When you have the ball in your hand and you’re the point guard, you’re better off being a leadoff guy who gets a lot of walks and gets some singles and doubles. How many home run hitters are point guards in our league? Very few. But by nature, that’s who he is. But he’s a young kid, and he’s improving all the time.”

Lin didn’t become a sensation by hitting seeing-eye singles through the hole. He rarely matches the Lin of last season but does show how it was done. And it is nice to know he did it once even if it is not the goal now, as if it were all enough to make him believe the best is yet to come.

Having Harden helps

“People always remember that,” Lin said. “The thing I need to remember and remind myself is my role is different. In this one, I’m not as much of the primary playmaker, primary ballhandler. It doesn’t mean I can’t do it. It just means I won’t get as many looks at that. That’s totally fine, because it takes pressure off me, and we have someone who is really, really, really good — James — who is able to do it. Just learning to play off of him, play with him, has been a great learning process for me.

“For me, I think that’s something that I see. ‘OK, I’m capable of doing that. I’ve done that before.’ It’s not something I could have maintained. I still feel like the best parts of my career are yet to come. A lot of that is tied to team success, deep playoff runs and things like that. I don’t think I’ll ever average whatever I averaged in that stretch. But that’s OK with me.”